What is the Full Form of ED?

The full form of ED is Enforcement Directorate. ED comes under the ambit of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India and its main work involves fighting economic-related crimes and enforcing laws related to economics in India. The Directorate of Enforcement consists of officers from prominent services in India such as Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service and Indian Revenue Service. 

History of Enforcement Directorate 

Headquartered in New Delhi, Originally ED was established on May 1, 1956.

• It was established as an Enforcement unit under the Department of Economic Affairs.
• Its responsibility was to carry out the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1947.
• Later in 1957, the unit was renamed as the Enforcement Directorate. 

Also Read: What is the full form of CEC?

Functions of the Enforcement Directorate

The Enforcement Directorate is responsible for carrying out the provisions of the –

1. Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA),
2. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA),
3. The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA) and
4. The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA). 

The main role of ED is to look after the smooth running of India’s financial system without involving any illegal activities underneath. Apart from this, it does the following things:

• Gather evidence from various Intelligence agencies to look after the possible violation of FEMA.
• Interrogate and take action against financial fraud.
• Seize assets of violators where it can also impose fines up to three times the amount under question.
• Assist other countries in circumstances like assets recovery or money laundering cases.

Also Read: What is the Full Form of ARO?

Hierarchy in the Enforcement Directorate 

ED recruits officers as Assistant Enforcement Officers, after which they further climb the hierarchical order in the following manner –

Assistant Enforcement Officer (AEO) —> Enforcement Officer –>Assistant Director —> Deputy Director—-> Joint Director—>Special Director-Director.

There are also some officers who are hired on a deputation level and are employed on a temporary basis of 2 to 5 years in ED. 

Regional and Sub-Regional Offices of  Enforcement Directorate 

The Enforcement Directorate has various offices all over India that carry out the various functions of the organisation. The organisation has 5 regional offices – Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Delhi (headed by special directors of ED), 16 zonal offices (headed by a joint director) and 14 sub-zonal offices (headed by a deputy director). 

Zonal Offices	Sub-Zonal Offices
Pune	Mangaluru
Bengaluru	Bhubaneshwar
Chandigarh	Kozhikode
Chennai	Indore
Kochi	Madurai
Delhi	Nagpur
Panaji	Allahabad
Guwahati	Raipur
Mumbai	Dehradun
Hyderabad	Ranchi
Jaipur	Surat
Jalandhar	Shimla
Kolkata	Vishakhapatnam
Lucknow	Jammu
Patna
Srinagar

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